It used to be unacceptable to shoot a doe where I hunt in SW Nebraska, when there were fewer deer (1960's/70's) and nearly no whitetails ..... now there are nearly no mule deer and you can't drive the speed limit at night for fear of hitting a whitetail...... hell, I had one run into the side of my car (Kamikaze?) ..........

Now, the Game and Parks encourages the taking of whitetail doe, giving a bonus antlerless whitetail tag on every permit, and antlerless whitetail tags are much less expensive, seasons are longer and permits are easier to get than regular firearm deer permits...... some units have a "Earn a Buck" deal, where you must check in an antlerless whitetail before your buck tag is valid.

It's about management, and there have never been more deer in the state, despite the record harvests every year, so they want to keep a lid on it.

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Depends on the region of the country. When I first started hunting about 40 years ago seeing a decent buck was a rare event and killing a doe was considered very bad.

Today the deer herd is at nusiance levels and the number of hunters is about 1/2 what it was. Our season used ot be about 2 weeks. Now it runs from mid September to mid January. Bag limit, 2 Bucks and 10 does on private property. Anything you take on a Wildlife Management area does not count towards your limit so you could potentially take many more than the 12.

Everyone wants the numbers reduced. While technically a violation, most Game Wardens don't really pursue shooting as many does as possible.

We only get 12 deer tags in GA.2Bucks 10 d's I would much rather see those doe deer in My freezer than in the grill of My wifes car.Very few hunters have any problems taking doe's here because many that dont shoot them sooner or later get one with the car anyway.Not making fun its a fact.

In Washington the GMU are divided between horns, no horns, and any deer.
Most of the any deer and no horn units are on the West side.

iirc there are more any deer units than there used to be

But the season in WA is ridiculously short and the regs are insanely complicated. Most of the Westside GMU's have only a 2 week season for modern firearm. There are special openings sprinkled around all over the place. The late opening is only 4 days long.

The one benefit of this is that I encountered almost no other hunters during the two days I was able to find time to get out in GMU 448 this year (unfortunately I also encountered almost no deer. Skunked). I think a lot of people have given up in this part of the state. Long term this is bad though, if there are no hunters there will be no impediment to further tightening the regulation screws.

I have been told that the Department of Fish and Game leaves the decision up to the county governments, and they being elected officials certainly don't want to do anything to hurt their chances of getting votes so it's usually a no.

I find it very disturbing that game management decissions are made by politicians.

Just look at the whole western wolf problem.

Not only are does spared by politicians, sometimes, does are also killed for political reasons.

While most areas in New York have doe permits, the two areas I hunt in, one in Northern Zone and one in Southern Zone have none (wish I could say it was because I was single handily keeping the deer population down but...) . Therefore, when hunting muzzle loader while I can take any sex I will certainly target a buck before a doe. If I am issued a "doe permit" I try to take a doe.

In my wanderings, I've definintely seen the regional biases on doe harvesting (amongst over things). I personally do not mind taking does. Last I checked, you cannot eat horns.

That being said, I cut my teeth hunting central FL where you could shoot does at will during bow and muzzleloader, but during rifle it was only legal on "doe weekends".

I already shot 2 does this year, as well as my 15 yo taking 2 does as well during a cull hunt on a friend's ranch in Texas.

Where I think we are really missing the boat is in the whole trophy hunting culture. After being in the company of a few of them, it seems if you are not harvesting 140 class minimum bucks, you don't qualify as a "real hunter".

It makes me laugh seeing all the deer skull stickers with monster racks, normally with 2 drop tines. I'd bet most of them folks have never shot a buck that big, let alone see one in real life (outside BPS or Cabelas).

I mostly shoot doe, because they make up most of the deer that feed during the day. Based on my game camera, I see them at about a 15:1 ratio around here. We have tiny numbers of big bucks, servicing many does. The bigger bucks are completely nocturnal by about the first week of early muzzleloader season. A few spikes and forkhorns show up during daytime hours, but even they're rare. I think over the past 7 years I've seen 2 bucks during the daytime while in the stand. If it weren't for my game camera, I wouldn't know there were any around at all.

Here in Missouri where the whitetail are plentiful taking does is a common practice,during firearm season which is 12 days one buck with at least four points on one side are legal to fill our any deer tag.We can purchase as many antler-less deer tags at 7.00 a tag (resident) as we wish,we also have a 3 day doe only hunt after our firearm season.

I have been buying deer tags in MO. since 1975 when deer hunting was Bucks only and then in the late 70s depending on which unit or section of our state you hunted you could sign up in the raffle for a "Bonus Tag" which was a doe only tag and the beginning of our doe hunting in the state of Missouri.

For years we could only shoot bucks around here. Then DNR realized that the buck/doe ratio was way outta whack because of it. Now once you shoot a buck you have to take a doe before you can shoot another buck. I have no probs shooting doe they eat just fine.

Two doe days during the entire muzzleloader and rifle season where I live. The population is not that great. Where I lease land 246 miles from the house you can take 4 does and buy more doe tags after that. Also it is either sex from the end of October to JAN. 1. I have never taken a doe near the house just because it was always against our beliefs due to the low population. In an area that has a healthy population I have no problem taken some tasty does. The farmer where I lease my land begs me to kill more deer due to his garden being devoured by deer. I think a certain amount of doe population control is needed for a healthy deer heard.

Mmmmm Hooligan I went back and checked the antlerless season you are correct,not to many years ago we had just a weekend after firearm season for a antlerless 3 day hunting weekend then the blackpowder would start up again which also included bucks or does.Looks like we have a much longer antlerless season here in MO.thanks for pointing that out

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